Major Additions - Product Review Forums ? Research, Review & Compare Items

Version 1.4.0 has been released to remove the giftery / list it integration of the addon now that service has been discontinued. No upgrade is needed though there have been a few other bug changes since 1.3.5.

Finding Feedback Can be Like a Needle in a Haystack

The more your forum grows, the more of a challenge it becomes to sort through the history and get the full story.

Product Review Forums Brings Structure to the Chaos

As a full-featured product management addon, PRF sits on top of your forum allowing you to create defined products which, unlike individual posts, stay relevant over time. Each comment, review and even product updates filter back into this one spot allowing for a quick and comprehensive overview while the individual discussions rage on as always.

Here's just a few of the many features you'll find in PRF:

• Bring structure to products with established pages & reviews
• Reduce the number of repetitive posts from members looking up the same info
• Increase your traffic with content-rich, seo friendly, product listings
• Drive revenue by adding your own affiliate links to product listings
• Increase the activity stream's value with review integration
  
• Engage visitors with integrated wishlists from Giftery.me

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Installation is not upload & go... individualized settings are required. Read the install file.

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QUICK TIPS:
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Enabling Product Forums: To show product details and ratings, each product-forum must be enabled in the forum manager.

Adding Products: You may upload products one at a time through the admin [includes an image uploader using GD] or you can bulk import through XML. You can also enable users to add moderated products through a global and usergroup option.

Product Review Index: To access your forum's product overview go to www.yoursite.com/productforums.php - You may want to add a link to this to your navbar or as a tab.

Customization: This addon is made to be customized. To change the color schema see clientscript/vbulletin_css or dive right on in to the templates and phrases.

Powered by Giftery.me: This mod is maintained includes two integrations you should know about. Both can be controlled through the mod options.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Toorak Times

...having said that Ted I'm a dyed in the wool forumite, starting from getting banned in yahoo and establishing what is the largest Oz lawn bowls forum Bowlsworld around 10 years ago and long term member of a vB 3.6 site www.bowlsblog.com, the second largest, and part of the biggest www.julianhainesbowls.co.uk. I came out of forums but AM a publisher. I would plead to you and all mod builders to think CMS and Blog as the worlds reality in media shifts around

With vB5 looming we're not planing much of anything at this time but will do, if & when we build something new

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by addamroy

I've uploaded an attachment showing the admin permissions. There is no 'manage posts' permission option in the 4.2.1 admin permissions it doesn't seem.

Hrmm...

You can comment out

if (!can_administer('canadminposts'))
{
print_cp_no_permission();
}

From admincp/productforums.php although checking for some access level would be a good idea.

We will of course switch this around in the next release.

Originally Posted by addamroy

How do I turn GD on or off? I'm pretty sure I have it though because I use the Damn Comp Member Map mod which requires that, and that mod works fine.

GD is installed at the server level.

Have you used the image uploader (on the edit screen) / bulk importer?

[addamroy]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Have you used the image uploader (on the edit screen) / bulk importer?

No I have been using the product submission form, this section of the forum will run almost entirely off products submitted by members so this feature likely won't be used at all.

Also, if (!can_administer('canadminposts')) does not show up in the productforums.php file I have. I narrowed it down to canadminposts for a search in the file and it doesn't exist.

Another question, is there anyway you can write up a quick plug-in that hooks into showthread somewhere that registers the {vb:raw product.productid} variable for use in the showthread template of my product forums?

The reason for this is I've already added a custom 'write a review' button elsewhere on that page, a big blatant one, but I need to be able to append the product ID to the URL so it works and goes to the write a review page when it's clicked.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by addamroy

No I have been using the product submission form, this section of the forum will run almost entirely off products submitted by members so this feature likely won't be used at all.

Ahh!

If members input urls just run the bulk script and it should resize them for you.

Originally Posted by addamroy

Also, if (!can_administer('canadminposts')) does not show up in the productforums.php file I have. I narrowed it down to canadminposts for a search in the file and it doesn't exist.

Are you looking in the admincp folder version? It's line 33 in my version.

Originally Posted by addamroy

Another question, is there anyway you can write up a quick plug-in that hooks into showthread somewhere that registers the {vb:raw product.productid} variable for use in the showthread template of my product forums?

The reason for this is I've already added a custom 'write a review' button elsewhere on that page, a big blatant one, but I need to be able to append the product ID to the URL so it works and goes to the write a review page when it's clicked.

Try editing the hook showthread_post_start and adding

$thread['productid'] = $product['productid'];

Right after $show['largereplybutton'] = false;

This will make the variable thread.productid

[addamroy]

When I run the sync external images script I get the following error.

couldnt save the image for - skipping
couldnt save the image for - skipping
All Done!

I checked the folder I set up for these images in the core settings with my FTP software and the images are in fact being created in this folder.

The thumbnails are not showing up on the productforums.php display page. Folder permissions are at 755.

Other than that it's going great though, that hook edit you mentioned worked perfectly this is all in all a great mod.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by addamroy

The thumbnails are not showing up on the productforums.php display page. Folder permissions are at 755.

Either the path is wrong or the server is unable to write to it.

[addamroy]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Either the path is wrong or the server is unable to write to it.

Alright, I'm pretty sure the path is right because the files are being created and written to the correct place, and the view image url in my core settings is the same of coarse just a shortened version of the full url.

Other than that what do you suppose would cause the server to be unable to read/write that folder or the images?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by addamroy

Alright, I'm pretty sure the path is right because the files are being created and written to the correct place, and the view image url in my core settings is the same of coarse just a shortened version of the full url.

Other than that what do you suppose would cause the server to be unable to read/write that folder or the images?

\

I think I'm missing something...

The files (full and thumbnail) are being created, are in the folder specified, load up (if downloaded via ftp) but don't show on the site?

[addamroy]

Originally Posted by Ted S

\

I think I'm missing something...

The files (full and thumbnail) are being created, are in the folder specified, load up (if downloaded via ftp) but don't show on the site?

Yes the thumbnail isn't showing on the productforums.php page, in addition to the error I pasted above when I run the sync images script which is strange because the images DO seem to be getting created and stored in the folder, I've attached an image.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by addamroy

Yes the thumbnail isn't showing on the productforums.php page, in addition to the error I pasted above when I run the sync images script which is strange because the images DO seem to be getting created and stored in the folder, I've attached an image.

Hrm....

Perhaps the script is erroring before the database gets updated... Do any of the mainphoto or thumb values exist in the table prf?